A new beginning
by thegirlofmanymoods
Summary: Sakura looked up at him and uttered a phrase that neither person ever thought she would say. "I wish you never came back."
1. 1

**Hey everyone! So I finally found time to rewrite this chapter, hope you all like it. Because I didn't have a copy of it beforehand, some small parts of this are written differently then before. I liked the old version better, but maybe that's just me. I guess if there's any upside to this I learned a good lesson about saving. Anyways, I don't own Naruto. Enjoy guys! **

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A trickle of sweat made its way down Sakura's forehead before she swept it off with a small hand. She had been running at top speed to Konoha for quite a few hours now. Not because she was eager to see the Leaf village, but because she wished to get her visit over with as soon as possible.

Don't get her wrong, she loved Konoha, really she did (even though she was pretty certain that the feeling wasn't mutual). It was the place where she grew up. Some of her best memories were there. And it was the first place that she ever felt loyal towards.

However, certain events of the recent past were causing her to fear, dread, and even loath her return. The fact that she was being forced back didn't help.

In Konoha's defense, they didn't really have a choice but to send for her. Naruto's and Hinata's baby was sick. Before she had initially left the Leaf village, the pinkette had done pregnancy tests for Hinata. She had detected a small problem and managed to get rid of it. Or at least, she thought she did. Apparently the issue was returning and since Sakura was the one who had treated the problem before, it would only respond to her chakra signature. So now she had to go back and heal the child. Lucky her.

Sakura wondered how many medics must have tried to heal Naruto's child before they realized that only she could fix the problem. Probably quite a few. Heck, even Tsunade herself most likely tried to help the baby. It must have also been really hard for them to have to send the message to Mist asking for her help. However, as hard as it was for them to do that, it was even harder for her when she realized that she had to return to the place that had treated her so badly.

Her pace slowed as she neared Konoha's gates. How would the people of Konoha treat her when she returned? Would they be kind to her? Or would they treat her the way they had before she departed to Mist? She wouldn't put it past them...

The Leaf Village looked exactly the same as it did when she left a year ago. But then again, it had always looked the same, even as the pinkette was growing up. Still, looking at the gates made her miss the times when she was a part of the village, when she was welcomed and embraced by it. It almost made her wish that she could change what had happened before. Almost.

A guard met her as the pinkette neared the village. Since Konoha had sent for her and the guard probably knew who she was, there wasn't much need for the guard to say anything to her. In fact she wasn't expecting him to say anything. Ever since _it_ happened everyone in Leaf seemed to try to avoid talking to her whenever possible. Unless they wanted to insult her that is. They did that a lot too.

Much to Sakura's surprise, the guard did say something to her, and it wasn't meant to hurt her. "Welcome back and good luck."

Her eyes visibly widened. "Thank you." She told him before she walked through the gates. Why would he say that? Especialy considering how everyone treated her before.

Maybe it was because, even though she was likely still quite unpopular, he felt gratitude for helping the child of the great Uzamaki. It still astounded her a little to think that the once complete outcast was now the village's hero. And yet, because of her forehead and hair color, she started out was an outcaste, was loved for a while, then ostracized again. But this time it was for an entirely different reason.

The sun was out in a cloudless sky and because of it there was a cheery atmosphere to the village. It almost made her want to smile. However the circumstances of her visit prevented her from doing so.

As usual, the streets of Konoha were bustling with activity. Couples and families were walking around, enjoying the opportunity to spend time together. Merchants were trying their hardest to sell their products. Others were simply trying to finish their shopping for the day.

And all of those people immediately stopped what they were doing and froze as she entered the marketplace. All eyes were on her. Was this what it was like for Gaara when he first came to the chunin exams all those years ago?

After the initial shock of her arrival seemed to wear off, some people resumed the tasks that they were doing earlier. However, others continued to look at her, as if they were unsure how to respond to her presence. She saved them the trouble of deciding what to do by walking past them without making any eye contact so they wouldn't have to make a decision.

The marketplace resumed its usual loud and fast-paced atmosphere. The pinkette was unsure of what to make out of everyone's uncertain responses. Just like it had been with the guard, the most likely answer was that they were still feeling hostile towards her but the fact that she was helping Naruto's kid prevented them from lashing out. However, just like with the guard, Sakura hoped that maybe they were about to start acting nicely towards her.

Sakura's train of thought was interrupted when a ball came rolling towards her. When she looked up she saw that a young boy was trailing after it. Knowing that in this busy marketplace, someone would likely kick it away before the boy was able to catch up to it; the medic stopped the ball with her foot. Then she picked up the smooth object and held it out to the child.

The boy came rushing towards her. "Thank you." He told her gratefully. A huge smile was plastered on his small face. Seeing that made her believe that things did change around her for the better. Perhaps she could feel welcomed here again.

At that moment a woman, who Sakura assumed to be the boy's mother, came up to the child and took his hand. "Toka, you know better than to talk to that traitor!" The woman grabbed the boy's hand and marched off with him in tow. When she thought that the pinkette wasn't looking, the woman gave her a death glare. Apparently Sakura was wrong. Everything was exactly the same as it had been when she had left. Nothing had changed. And she definitely did not feel welcome.

The medic got up and continued her journey, trying unsuccessfully to push the event with the boy out of her mind. But no matter how hard she tried to forget about it, to toss it out of her mind, it just wouldn't leave. The mother's words kept bouncing around in her head. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. It was enough to make her want to run away, hide under a rock and cry.

But Sakura didn't run nor did she cry. She kept her emotions bottled up. Like she had learned to do a year and a half ago. When she discovered that there wasn't much point to crying because it didn't make the hurt go away and there was no one to wipe away the tears and tell her that it was going to be ok.

Instead of breaking down in the middle of the streets, the pinkette decided to change her train of thought. She tried once again to force herself to think of something else. This time, it worked. But it was probably only because this topic was related to the previous one.

She wondered how the blond was going to react to her presence. As much as the pinkette wanted to believe that he would come rushing up to her and welcome her with open arms, the situation with the ball destroyed any hope she had left in her. Now she thought that he would probably act like the other villagers: uncertain of how to respond to her. Sure he would refrain from yelling at her or insulting her because she was going to heal his child. But he wouldn't act nearly as happy or as nicely as he did before.

When they used to be friends.

By now she had reached her destination, the Hokage's office. Sakura entered the building and, not wanting to see another round of the shocked expressions, walked straight into Tsunade's office without bothering to look at anyone.

Tsunade was in the same position she was usually in: crouched over her desk glaring at paperwork. And judging by the way the blond was rubbing her forehead, probably also nursing a hangover.

As soon as the Hokage realized that Sakura was in the office, she looked up and offered a warm, genuine smile. "Hello Sakura. Welcome back."

Tsunade was one of the very few people who had still been kind to Sakura after the incident. Probably because she was closer to the pinkette then to anyone else involved in it. The fact that her old mentor had still cared for her after what had happened was one of the only reasons why the pinkette stayed in Konoha as long as she did.

Despite her slightly depressed mood, Sakura tried to offer her former mentor a small smile. It didn't work out very well, and the lines of her mouth only moved a little. But hey, at least she tried right? "Hello."

The blonde's facial expression turned slightly sorrowful when she saw how defeated her old apprentice looked. It made her want to go out and beat up everyone who dared make the pinkette feel hurt into a pulp. Of course however, she couldn't. She couldn't beat up everyone in the Leaf village. Especially considering that she was leader of the dang place. "You will begin your mission tomorrow." Tsunade announced. "You will go directly to the hospital instead of coming here."

Sakura nodded, and then looked up at Tsunade with a hesitant expression and asked. "How long do you think that I will have to stay here for?"

The tone that the pinkette used sounded so filled with hurt that the slug woman couldn't bear to tell her the truth. So instead Tsunade replied. "At least a week."

A small frown formed on Sakura's face as she nodded once again. She had been hoping that she would only have to stay for a few days. "Alright." With that she began to leave the small office room.

However, before she did so, Tsunade called out to her. "By the way, there's something you should know."

The medic turned and looked back. "What is it?"

"Sasuke has returned."

Sakura's eyes widened. He was back? And he hadn't even mentioned to let her know? Sure she had been in Mist for the past year, but he could have least sent a scroll to her. Especially considering his involvement in the incident.

Then again, she probably shouldn't be_ that_ surprised. He never seemed to ever really want to go out of his way for her, even back in their genin days. Sasuke had probably decided that it would be too annoying to let her know or something like that. Or maybe he didn't think that it was worth the effort.

Turning her attention back to the Hokage, the medic nodded for a third time, then left without a word.

Not having anything else to do for the day, she decided to go back to her old house. Fortunately it was not far from the Hokage's building so she did not have far to walk. Maybe she would take a nice, hot bath when she got to the house. Yeah, that sounded good. Her pace was a little lighter now that she had something to look forward too.

It went even lighter when a thought occurred to her. She had previously thought that her time here was going to be horrible. But now the one person who could make her situation better had returned. Sasuke was back, and maybe she could get to him to help make things better for here. Technically he did owe her one. A small glimmer of hope went into her heart. Maybe her situation here could get better after all.

That ended quickly when she accidently bumped into someone. Not wanting to hear 'watch where you're going traitor', the pinkette quickly mumbled an apology and tried to leave before whoever she had bumped into could comment.

"Sakura?"

Recognizing the voice immediately, Sakura whipped around to face the person she had stumbled on. "Sasuke."

For a while, neither person said anything. Then the pinkette asked, "So...Itachi?"

"Dead."

"I see." She was about to ask about the possibility of him talking to the other villagers about taking it easier on here when someone bumped into her. Sakura turned to see a teenage girl now fallen on the ground. "Hey, are you ok?" The medic reached out her hand to help the girl up.

The girl flinched away from it as if it was on fire. "Don't touch me traitor!" Then the girl pushed herself up and sauntered away, but now before looking at Sasuke at winking at him saying, "Hey gorgeous." As she did so.

Sakura blinked, her eyes filled with disbelief and hurt. But it was not directed at the girl. The pinkette was used to seeing that sort of behaviour. No, the anguish was directed at Sasuke. Because he could have done something about what had just transpired, should have done something, but for some reason chose not to do so. She turned to face and her emerald eyes narrowed into a glare. "Why didn't you do anything to stop that?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why would I do anything?"

Her glare grew more intense. Why that pompous ass hole. "Because the reason that happened, the reason I'm being treated like crap, is because of you."

"What you did was your choice. You knew that there would be consequences for what your actions. Therefore I hold no responsibility for what happened to you after you made the choice."

The pinkette was once again filled with disbelief. "Nice to see that you've changed for the better." With that, the female walked away, not bothering to look back once.

As soon as she thought that she was out of Sasuke's line of vision, she bolted away, not caring if anyone else saw her. After making it to her house in a record time of six minutes, she slammed the door shut behind her and jumped onto her old bed. The pinkette screamed into the nearest pillow.

So not only was she forced to stay in this hell hole, but the only person who could make things better for her refused to do so because apparently he didn't feel responsible for what happened to her here even though the entire reason she was shunned was his fault.

It was official; her time here was going to suck. And there was nothing she could do about it.


	2. The first healing

Sakura took a deep breath and looked worriedly at Naruto's front door. She really didn't want to do this.

It had taken her an hour to get up this morning. Not because she liked to sleep in (she did, but usually she forced herself to get up at dawn anyways), but because she had to build up the momentum to walk over and heal Naruto's child.

The pinkette was fine with actually healing the actual child. She liked healing people. It was the fact that she needed to see Naruto again that she was fearful about. How would the blond react to her presence?

She was aware of the fact that the love for his child would probably prevent the blond from lashing out. Heck, he might even usher out a thank you to her. So, in a sense, the medic really shouldn't have that much to worry about.

But she did worry.

Because she knew that, even if the blonde seemed alright on the outside, he would probably be seething at her on the inside. At least that was how he had acted before (except then he didn't even give her the luxury of hiding his hatred). And since Sasuke obviously hadn't changed, she didn't think that Naruto had done so either.

Her gaze turned once more to the door. Might as well get this over with. Sakura raised her first and knocked lightly on the door. Within seconds she heard someone unlocking the handle and the door slowly opened. Hinata blessed the pinkette with a warm smile. "Sakura, thank you so much for coming." Naurto's wife never really had much issue with Sakura, however, she always had to hide this whenever her husband around. The blond got angry whenever he saw someone treating the pinkette kindly.

Sakura smiled. "You're welcome." She wanted to add 'even though I didn't have a choice' but her friendship with Hinata prevented her from doing this.

"Come in." Hinata insisted, opening the door wider and moving aside to make from for the other woman. Sakura walked inside the house.

It was a lot nicer and neater than the medic expected it to be considering the fact that it was Naruto's home. But then again, Hinata also lived here. The Hyugas probably didn't want any member of their clan to be living in a pig sty (which was what Naruto's old home looked like).

As they walked into one of the hallways Hinata told Sakura. "Oh, I'm sorry but Naruto isn't here right now. He's...doing things around the village today."

Ok, Sakura was now in a worse mood. She had to travel here from Mist and face people who constantly treat her like crap just to heal Naruto's baby and Naruto didn't even have the decency to show up? Why that little douche bag.

The medic could see why he did it. After all she wasn't really excited to see him either. Still, they were going to face each other eventually, so he might as well show up and act like he was at least a little appreciative for her saving his kid's life.

Despite her new anger, the pinkette tried to appear calm to Hinata. After all, it wasn't her fault Naruto decided to leave. Sakura simply nodded. "I see."

The pair was silent until they came into a large room. At first glance Sakura decided that it was a nursery. And when she saw a smile child in a crib, the medic knew that she was correct. "Her name is Lorita." Hinata told her. The little girl was beautiful. Already she was gifted with a mane of blond hair and Hinata's button nose. Sakura knew that the child would grow up to be a very pretty girl.

However, the baby also looked extremely fragile and sick. Her breathing was slowed and ragged, it was quite thin and its skin appeared almost paper thin and stark white. Sakura was almost scared as she slowly reached out and touched it. As she examined the child she did it in the lightest and most careful way possible.

The medic had decided earlier on that for her first day she wouldn't do much healing, just any essential work. For the most part she'd just be running tests to learn more about the health of the child.

One hour later she was just about finished with her tests. There were a few things that she wasn't sure of that she would ask Tsunade about later. However, for the most part she was able to see the problem and the affects it was having on the child. She also cleared up the baby's lungs so that it could breathe a bit easier.

Sakura smiled up at Hinata. "Alright I think I'm finished for the day, I just need to talk with Tsunade later about a few things."

Hinata nodded. "Thank you so much for your help Sakura. It means a lot to me."

"Well at least it means something to one of you." The pinkette mumbled under her breath, thinking about Naruto.

"What was that?" Hinata asked.

Sakura shook her head. "Nothing. Anyways I think I'll head home now."

"I'll see you to the door." The two walked in silence until they went to the entryway of the house. "Thanks again Sakura." Hinata told her as she opened the door for the pinkette.

"You're welcome. Have a nice day." Sakura replied as she left. _I wish that you would be this happy when Naruto was here._

Sakura decided that she might as well go and talk to Tsunade about those problems now (partly because she was interested in her old mentor's thoughts about them, partly because she didn't really have anything else to do that day). She started on the way familiar path towards the Hokage building.

There were two roads she could take to get to the building. One was through the marketplace; the other was a back road. Since the pinkette wasn't planning on talking to anyone and she highly doubted that anyone was going to talk with her, she chose the latter. Unfortunately, that meant that she had to pass by the training grounds. So she planned to walk quickly pass that area in case any of her old comrades happened to be there.

Little did she know that was going to happening that she wasn't planning on. She was speed walking past the grounds, trying to get away from them as quickly as possible when she heard a familiar sound. "Is that all you got Sasuke?" It was Naruto's voice.

Sakura whipped around to see Naruto happily training with Sasuke. Her eyes went wide and before she registered what she was doing she ran away from the scene.

Once she was a large distance away from the pair she sat down on the sidewalk. How could Naruto be so friendly with Sasuke when he was so hostile to her? After how the blond treated her, she was sure that he would have treated Sasuke the same way. Apparently she was wrong. Despite all the anguish, all the pain that the Uchiha put both her and Naruto through, Naruto was willing to be friends with him again while he wouldn't even see her when she healed his child.

Suddenly she wasn't in the mood to see Tsunade. All she wanted to do was to go back to her house. So that's what she did. In fact she bolted her way back to the safe haven.

The pinkette ran up to her room as soon as she entered the house and screamed into the nearest pillow. How could Naruto forgive Sasuke and not her? Sasuke was the reason why Naruto had come to hate her and now the blond was acting like nothing ever happened, like the Uchiha had never left.

This wasn't fair! Her life was not fair. It wasn't fair that she was stuck in a village that hated her. It wasn't fair that Naruto hated her and Sasuke wouldn't help her. And it wasn't fair that a year and a half ago the pinkette had attempted to do a good deed only to become detested and despised because of it.

A sound made Sakura stop. She heard the wind. The medic lifted her head to listen to the direction of the sound, only to realize that it was coming from the front of her house. She had forgotten to shut the door. Smart.

Sakura got up off the bed and walked over to the front of her house. She reached out and was about to shut the door when something caught her eye. There was something sticking out of her mailbox. Something white. She plucked it out of the box and discovered that it was a letter.

That's odd. Why would someone send her a letter?

She flipped it over and read the back. It was from Mist. Ok, that made more sense. She was starting to think that people in Konoha were beginning to send her hate mail. As she continued reading the back she saw that it was from Hayden, a friend of hers from back home. The kind gesture brought a smile to her lips. With the letter in hand she stepped back into the house and shut the door behind her.

After opening the envelope with a letter opener she took out the letter and read its contents.

_Hi Cherry,_

_First off, I'm really sorry I wasn't there to say goodbye when you left. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my mission until the day after you left. So to make up for it, I will say my goodbyes now: Bye, I will miss you and will eagerly await your return._

_Ok, now that that's done I do wish you luck for your mission. I know what it was like for you when you lived there before. Thinking about the way they treated you makes my blood boil. They really don't deserve someone as wonderful and caring as you. _

_I know that by the time you read this you'll probably have been in Konoha for at least a day. So, as much as I'd like to think that it's nice there for you and that people are being friendly, I know that it's probably the opposite. I hope that this letter brightens your day a little. _

_Not much has happened here since you left. Omali is pretty much living in the hospital (as usual) and Loretta and Shune have broken up (and gotten back together) for the fourth time. In other words, not much has happened since you left. In fact, it's been rather boring. So, you should hurry up and get your cute butt back over here (preferably with the rest of your body attached to it). _

_However, when you do come back, you should spend a little less time in the hospital. I know you love working there, and I'm not trying to be pushy. But seriously, you almost spend as much time there as Omali does. And she has her own bed there! _

_In closing, everyone misses you, please hurry back as soon as you can, and good luck._

_Your friend (I hope anyways, after all we do spend a great deal of time together) _

_Hayden._

Sakura smiled once more at the letter. Suddenly her day felt a little better. Leave it to Hayden to make her feel better. She reached over for a pen and paper and began to write a letter to him.

_Dear Hayden, _

_Thank you so much for your letter! It made a crappy day a little brighter for me. Your letter means a lot to me. _

_It was a little odd to see your goodbyes in the letter, but I guess it's better late than never. So, I guess I will say my farewells to you as well: I will miss you Hayden, goodbye._

_As much as I'd like to say that your assumptions were wrong, you were correct. People are treating me as hostilely and badly as they did before I left. To make things worse Sasuke has returned. Now, before two days ago I would have been excited about that. A year and half ago I would have loved that. I remember how Naruto and I used to be so determined to bring him back to Konoha. If he hadn't returned, maybe we'd still be set on getting him back to Konoha. Or at least, one of us would be..._

_My first thought when I heard about his arrival was how he could make things better for me here (actually, that was my second thought. My first thought was how he had returned and I had heard nothing about it before. But that's beside the point). This dream was shattered when I met up with Sasuke and I found out that he feels no responsibility for me becoming an outcast. The nerve of that jerk! Ihe chances of him helping me are little to none. _

_Believe it or not it got worse after that. Today I began healing Hinata's and Naruto's child (oh, and by the way, because of the baby's health I unfortunately won't be back for at least a week). Naruto decided to not show up. Apparently the fact that I was saving his daughter's life was not enough reason for him to show up. But, looking back, I guess it was alright without him. I mean, we'd probably fight the entire time. And Hinata was a lot nicer then she would have been if he was around (please don't get mad at her, Naruto can be very forceful to others when he wants to be). _

_The check up went over well and I think I made some progress in the baby's health. As I was leaving Hinata's house I walked by the training grounds and I saw Naruto and Sasuke training together. That hurt. A lot. _

_So, that about finishes my rant, I'll stop complaining now. _

_It's funny that Lorette and Shune have broken up/gotten back together again. Those two should stop being an on and off couple and just realize that they are meant to be together. They're so cute together (even though they seem to argue quite frequently). _

_And I so do not go to the hospital almost as often as Omali. Well, maybe I do, but at least I try to have somewhat of a life outside of that building. Besides, what's wrong with being in the hospital all the time? I like helping people. Also the patients and other medics are grateful for it. _

_Thanks again for sending me the letter. I miss you too and will try to get back to Mist as soon as I can. _

_The Cherry, Sakura. _

Sakura smiled as she sent her letter in the post office. She hoped that Hayden would reply back to it. Maybe the two could become pen pals for a few days. It would be fun, and it would make her days here a little better. And right then, that was all she really wanted.

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**Hey everyone. First off, I'm really sorry for not updating in a long time. I've had a lot of tests and things like that lately. Also, I've had to force a lot of this chapter (and it probably shows), so I'm sorry if this chapter isn't the greatest, hopefuly the next ones will be better. **

**Also, does it feel like I'm beating you guys over the head with the fact that people in Konoha hate Sakura? If so please tell me and I'll tone it down in future chapters.**

**Thanks for reading this, please review. **


	3. Bad news

A light tapping sound was emitted as Sakura happily knocked on the door. Hopefully Hinata wouldn't mind her coming in earlier then she usually did. The pinkette had woken up earlier than usual that day and since she didn't have anything better to do, decided to go to Hinata's home early.

It was now almost a week since she had arrived, and in that week, the days were quite repetitive. Wake up late in the morning, go and heal the baby, go train somewhere by herself, go to back to her house and mope around until she went to bed. The only thing that seemed to vary was when she chose to eat.

She would have surely gone mad by now if it wasn't for two main factors. One was a letter she had received from Hayden. It was a reply from the letter she had sent him. He gave her an update of life in Mist, cursed those that were mean to her, and wished that she would hurry up and heal 'the little twit' so she could return home as fast as possible. The letter was quite amusing and caused an unshakable smile to go onto her features for the remainder of the day. Needless to say, she had wrote him another note, saying how much she enjoyed reading his letter and that she eagerly wished to return to Mist.

Her other pleasure was more surprising than the former. It was the visits to heal Hinata's child. Despite only knowing the child for a week, she had grown quite attached to the little munchkin. She often had small conversations with Hinata when she did so. The pinkette was finding that when the quiet Hyuuga came out of her shell, she was actually quite pleasant to talk to.

These two occurrences, however nice they were, were not the cause of her current happiness. Her current glee was due to the fact that her week was almost up. She was so close to going home!

The only problem was that the baby's health wasn't exactly up to par yet. However, Sakura was hoping that with her last two healing sessions, Lorita would improve enough to be able to receive treatment from someone other than herself.

The door opened, and just when she was about to greet Hinata, she was met with a pair of bright blue eyes that widened as soon as they saw her. "S-Sakura."

"Naruto." She replied. That was the first time she had ever heard the blond stutter before.

After the initial shock was over, Naruto quickly regained his bearings and glared at her. "You're early."

"It's nice to see you again too." She replied bitterly, using the same tone that he had just used with her.

"Why did you come earlier then you usually do?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She told him. "Did I arrive too early for you to be able to avoid me?"

For a split second, she could have sworn that she saw a little bit of guilt grace his features.

But it passed as quickly as it had come. He moved past her and proceeded to walk out the door. "It's not like you don't deserve it."

She frowned at his retreating form. "By the way, you're welcome for me healing your daughter."

He stopped and turned his around to look at her. "If you had healed her right the first time, she wouldn't need to be healed now."

Not wanting to fight with him, she bit back a rebuttal about how he should have healed the baby first himself if he didn't think highly of her abilities. "Sakura?" The pinkette turned to see a sorrowful looking Hinata looking at her. "I'm sorry about that."

Sakura's expression softened. "It's alright." She told her friend. "I should be used to it by now. Besides, it's not like you're the one who did anything."

The Hyuuga sighed and looked down at her hands. "I know. But I still don't like the way he treats you."

The medic stepped forward, feeling an urge to console Hinata. "Don't worry about it." She forced herself to give a small smile, hoping that she could also force her eyes to show fake happiness. "I've still got you right?"

Hinata nodded as a small smile appeared on her face. "That's true."

With that, Sakura stepped into the household to begin healing the baby. "How is she?" Hinata asked nervously when the medic was finished.

Sakura sighed and ran a hand through her pink locks. "Not as good as I was hoping." She should probably see Tsunade about this. Sure she thought that Lorita's improvement before wasn't good, but she didn't think that it would be this bad. "I think I'm going to go now."

The two exchanged goodbyes and Sakura left to go to the Hokage tower. Why was Lorita barely improving? It didn't make sense. Sure the infant's breathing was a little better and she wasn't as pale, but aside from that there was no evidence that the pinkette had healed her.

These thoughts troubled her all the way to the tower. Tsunade did not look surprised to see her former apprentice. She did however, seem to be dreading something. "Tsunade." Sakura started. "I wanted to ask you about something."

"About Lorita I'm presuming." The Hokage replied.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Yes. How did you know?"

Tsunade sighed. "I suppose that I've put this off for too long. Sakura, I'm sorry that I couldn't bring myself to tell you this earlier. Before you came to Konoha again some medics and myself studied Naruto's child intensively. And we discovered that, despite how good your healing abilities are, it will take quite a long time for the baby to be healed."

"H-how long?" The pinkette asked.

"Probably at least a year."

Sakura's eyes went wide as her body froze all traces of her previous happiness vanished. She had to stay, for at least a year? She had to endure being hated and alone for an entire year? She had to wait twelve whole months before she could return home? A tear slipped down her cheek, but she made no move to remove it. "No." The medic whispered. This could not be right. It had to be some sick joke. But Tsunade did not look like she was joking.

She bolted away from the office, tears streaming down her face as she did so. Why? Why was she being tortured like this? What did she do wrong to deserve this?

She continued to run out of the Tower, not planning to stop once until she was back at her house. Things did not go according to plans however, because as she was running, something, or rather, someone caught her eye. Sasuke was walking on the road she was on, but stopped when he saw her running. "Sakura." He looked at her tear streaked cheeks.

"Yes?" She asked hoarsely as he walked towards her. For a moment she thought that he was about to try and comfort her, or at the very least ask what was wrong.

"You have always let your emotions get the best of you." She frowned, reminding herself about just who she was currently talking too. Of course he wouldn't care enough to help her. That would be asking him to actually be capable of showing compassion, something he obviously lacked.

She tried for a moment to think of a bitter comeback, but failed. So instead she replied, "Please stop."

"Stop what?"

"Always making me feel worse than I was before." She left before he could respond. It seemed like the Uchiha still had a heavy influence on her emotions. It was just in the opposite way that it was in their genin days. Was he always like this and she just began to notice it? Or did he change? Either way, she did not want to be around Sasuke anymore. These days, the Sharingan user only brought her pain.

* * *

**Hey everyone! Wow this was a heavy chapter, had to get myself in the right mood (meaning listening to a lot of angry music :P ). There will be more Naruto and Sakura interactions, and well as Sakura and Sasuke, moments (unfortunatly for the pinkette). Hope everyone enjoyed reading it. Any questions or comments, please let me know in a review. Also I have a poll in my profile, feel free to check it out. **

**Oh, and since I always forget to put this thing on here: I don't own Naruto. **


	4. A nice surprise

**Hi everyone! Sorry that this took so long. Finals were a nightmare. Thanks to all that have reviewed thus far. **

**-insert usual disclaimer-**

* * *

_Hi Cherry_

_The fact that they're making you stay there for an entire year is absolutely horrible! If it was almost anyone else's kid, they would not have made you remain there for that long. I got really mad after reading it and tore up the letter without realizing it (sorry about that). The anger lasted for a few days, hence why it has taken so long for me to reply back to you. _

_Putting the anger aside, please don't give up hope. A year is an incredibly long time to stay there, but hopefully it will somehow go by quickly for you. Hey, maybe sometime you'll be allowed to come here for a vacation or something? Or if not, maybe I can come see you there. However, for now exchanging letters will have to suffice. _

_The village is doing all right, even though it would be a whole lot better with your pretty little self in it. _

_Sorry, I wish I could write more but I have to meet with Loretta and you know how she gets when people are late._

_The hottest guy you know, Hayden._

Sakura stared sadly at the note. It was a nice letter, but by making her more depressed about the fact that she couldn't leave, it did more harm than good.

A sigh escaped her lips as she folded the letter and placed it where the other letters from Hayden were. The pinkette had received the news that she would have to stay here about a week and a half ago, and ever since then, all she had really done was mope around her home in misery.

Perhaps it was time to stop that. After all, if she was going to spend a year here, she should at least try to spend it happily right? Plus, maybe like Hayden suggested, perhaps they could reunite sometime before the year mark.

After deciding that she was feeling a tad hungry, she made her way over to her kitchen to get something to eat. A frown appeared on her features after she opened her fridge. She needed to go out to the market and buy more food sometime soon. She was definetly running low.

The pinkette took out an apple and shut the door. Might as well go out today. She had already healed Lorita so she didn't have any other plans for the day. The girl took a bite out of the apple as she walked away to get her money.

The market was moderately full as the medic walked through it and bought various items. She had just purchased a box of berries and heard a familiar voice call her name. Her head snapped to the direction the voice came from. "Ino?"

Sure enough it was the blonde walking towards her. "Hey forehead girl." For the first time in a long time, Sakura gave a big genuine smile.

"When did you get here?" Ino asked Sakura when they were seated in a park.

The pinkette sighed. When did she get here? It felt like such a long time ago. "A few weeks."

The blonde nodded. "That makes sense. Me and my team were away on a mission for the past month."

Ah, that made sense. To be completely honest, the pink haired girl hadn't given much thought about one of her few friends in Konoha. Now she was feeling a little guilty for it. "How was the mission?"

"Oh it was horrible." Ino exclaimed, rolling back her head. "The stupid thing took forever! And there were barely any times when I could shower, I felt gross like the entire time. The first thing I did when I got back was take a nice long shower. And don't even get me started on the food…"

The pinkette spent the next two hours listening to the blonde's complaints, laughing with Ino, and then exchanging recent gossip stories she had seen in Mist.

The encounter had put the pinkette in a good mood which had remained until the end of the day. It was good to hear her best friend's ramblings again. Listening to them made Sakura feel almost normal again, made her feel like it was a few years ago, when she was still on good terms with everyone.

She and Ino had parted after chatting together for two hours. They had left with the promise of meeting each other more often. The pair had never even hinted at the turmoil that the pinkettte had been facing from practically the rest of Konoha.

And she was ok with that.

Sakura walked over to her desk chair and sat down, deciding that she should write a reply to Hayden's letter. She looked at his letter again. After rereading it twice she set it down, grabbed a new piece of paper and pen, and began to write.

_Hey there cutie _

_Yeah, being here a year is pretty crappy. I guess the best course of action would be to take this one day at a time. I would have a countdown but with how many days I still have to be here, it would just be really depressing. _

_However, one good thing happened today that made my day significantly less depressing. I saw my best friend today! Her name is Ino. She was one of the only people to stick beside me when 'it' happened. That girl has a really outspoken personality. And although she can be a tad annoying, she was always there for me when I needed her;__ especially when people starting treating me badly. It was almost kind of funny; whenever she was with me she would always glare or even yell at people who said something bad to me. There was this one time when a man yelled at me about how he thought that I was a traitor and should 'relieve Konoha of my burden'. Ironically, I did. Anyways Ino was furious; she went right up to him, threw her coffee at him, and screamed at him that if he didn't like me so much, he should leave himself. After that people didn't bother me as much, at least when I was with her. _

_She had been gone on a mission since before I arrived, which is why I didn't encounter her here sooner. I was shopping for groceries when I saw her. It was so nice, made my day! We spent the next two hours talking, and we're planning to meet up later as well. _

_Seeing you again before the year is over would be awesome! After all, ever since I arrived the main thing that has been making me happy is your letters. Meeting each other again would be beneficial for both of us. Me, because I would be seeing a good friend and a person from Mist. You, because I know of the crush on me that you seem to not make an effort of hiding. _

_I hope Mist is still treating you well. Please tell everyone that I said hi. _

_The Cherry, Sakura_

_P.S By the way, I don't know if I've ever told you this before, but you are the only one I've ever allowed to call me a nickname based off my hair colour. Everyone else who has tried has gotten beaten up for it. _

With that she folded the letter up and placed it in an envelope. After putting the necessary pieces of information on the envelope she stood up, with the letter in hand, and left her house to go to the post office.

The trip to the desired building was relatively uneventful for the girl. Her time at the post office was mostly routine as well. There was something surprising near the end of the visit however. After she had sent the letter the post man gave her the glare he normally gave her, but then leaned in closely and whispered, "I'm sorry if I've hurt you."

That was nice to hear him apologize and find out that him being mean to her was only an act. So that made three good things today; two of them unexpected. That was more than a good enough reason to smile.

Her happiness came to a sudden halt when she was walking home. She heard someone screaming to get a medic for Sasuke at the training grounds. Before she even registered her actions, Sakura was running to the grounds. The medic arrived in record time.

It was obvious to see why he needed a medic. Sasuke was unconscious, had a broken arm and had various gashes all over his body, some of them very deep. The medic immediately knelt down beside him, tuning out the rest of the world, and looked over his wounds.

Once she got a good idea of all the damage done and what the worst areas were, she began to heal him. It took her about fifteen minutes to finish healing all of his serious wounds and spent roughly five minutes lightly going over his other wounds, making sure he wouldn't have any scars. She stopped after that. There were still a few cuts and bruises, but nothing the big boy couldn't handle. She then walked away, not bothering to look at anyone as she left.

* * *

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes. He and Naruto had been a little too intense during their spare. Couple that with the fact that Sasuke had already spared with Neji and Lee before that, him being unconscious afterwards was understandable.

The first thing he saw was the dobe looking down worriedly at him. Then he noticed a strange thing, he was still in the training grounds, not in a hospital. With injuries as serious as the ones he had received, most medics would have wanted him moved to a hospital room.

Speaking of his injuries, the Uchiha looked himself over and saw that the majority of his wounds were healed; only small cuts remained. His arm was fixed as well. What was going on? He looked up at the blond and asked, "What happened?"

Naruto looked back at him and said, with a hint of confusion evident in his voice, "Sakura healed you."


	5. The meet up

"Really?" Sakura asked.

"Yep," Ino nodded, "After Tenten was put in the hospital Neji realized just how much she meant to him. So the second she got out he asked her on a date and they've been going out ever since."

"Wow," the pinkette replied. Sounds like she missed a lot while she was gone. It made her kind of wish that she had been here to see everything happen. Figures that Neji and Tenten would finally get together after she left. She knew that they didn't do it intentionally, but it still kind of sucked.

What else had happened since she went to Mist? For all she knew Tsunade could have gotten hitched. Ok…that was a bit extreme. But the point still remained, she would have liked to see what had happened to everyone first hand, rather than hear it from Ino. Even though she had left the village, Sakura still deeply cared for the people living in it, particularly those from the rookie nine. It was one of her regrets when she departed for good.

She must have appeared sad, because Ino looked at her and spoke up. "You know, as much as I love telling you all of this, you don't have to find all of it out from me, forehead. In fact, we're actually all planning on meeting up later today. You should come with us."

Sakura froze. Meet with everyone? Sure she just been fantasying about it, but that didn't mean she wanted to do it today! She wasn't ready! She just got close to Ino again, that didn't mean that she could automatically become friends with everyone else once again.

Besides, it was going to be extremely awkward. No one would have any idea what to say to her, and she likewise. She could see it now: at first they would all explain pleasantries, after which a silence would pursue. This would be followed by pathetic attempts at petty conversation until everyone made excuses to leave early. And that's _if_ Naruto wasn't there. If he was, the whole event would just become a yelling match between the two.

"Umm," the pinkette replied and moved to make a quick getaway. "I'm good. In fact, I think there are a few things that I need to do today that I forgot about until now-"

"Not so fast," Ino lashed out and clamped her hand on Sakura's arm. "Sakura, this would be good for you! And I'm not letting you skip out on it because you're nervous over nothing."

"But what if Naruto's there?" Sakura asked.

"Oh he probably will be," Ino replied. That does it, now she was definitely not going. She was not going there just to get screamed at that she betrayed everyone and was a crappy medic for allowing his child to get sick-again. Sakura voiced this to Ino, but the blonde just shrugged. "It won't be that bad worry wart. Besides, you two can't stay mad at each other forever."

"We're not going to suddenly become friends again after one meet up," Sakura reasoned, knowing that that was likely the thought travelling through her friend's mind. The girl probably thought that she was such a mastermind for thinking of a way for her and Naruto to meet.

"But this could still be a good start for you two," the blond insisted. "Think of it, with all the other people around Naruto will be forced to act more civil. And when he does, you two would be able to have a decent conversation and sort out all of your problems."

Sakura sighed, knowing that there was no point in explaining to Ino how delusional she was acting and that she was forgetting how impulsive Naruto was and would act the same way if they were alone or around fifty other people.

"Oh come on!" Ino insisted. "It will be fun. Please? For me?" To finish off her question, Ino gave Sakura a poor attempt at puppy eyes. Well, they weren't that bad, but after seeing Kiba's version of them every other puppy eyes didn't exactly seem up to par.

Well, it maybe it wouldn't end up being that bad. Maybe she could just make some excuse to leave or something before it turned ugly. Besides, if she refused to go Ino would hold it against her for who knows how long. That girl could hold one serious grudge. There had been one time when Sakura had turned down a shopping trip with Ino in favour of training with Tenten and Ino didn't talk to her for a month and referred to her only as 'that pink haired girl'.

"Fine, I'll go," Sakura replied, silently hoping to goodness that she wasn't going to regret this later.

Ino immediately brightened, "Good, because we're actually supposed to go there and meet with them now."

We? Sakura's eyes narrowed. "It sounds as if you planned this, pig."

Ino grinned sheepishly, "Well, maybe I kind of hinted that you were coming beforehand to Tenten." Before the pinkette could react, Ino seized her hand and proceeded to drag her, "Come on, we're going to be late."

Within minutes the pair appeared at Ichiraku. As they got closer to it, Sakura was filled with feelings of nostalgia. Memories of eating here with Team 7 flooded her mind. No matter what mood she was in before, she remembered that as long as she was with her team, she would always leave the ramen stand feeling happy.

Her team, they were a family. Or at least, they used to be. It would have been better if they were one of those teams that were comrades in name only. Then it wouldn't have hurt so much when everything happened. When Sasuke left. When Naruto left. When _she_ left.

She forced herself to push those thoughts aside as they were beside the stand. No use in getting over emotional now, it wouldn't help anything. Just make everyone think that she was weird for looking gloomy for nothing.

It looked like most of the rookie nine was there, with the exception of Hinata, Kiba and Shino who, as Ino explained on the way, were away on a mission, and Sasuke. And unfortunately, just like Ino had told her before, Naruto was sitting down with the rest of them. He was already looking at her, halting whatever conversation he had been in previously. He looked mad. Apparently he wasn't informed that she was coming. Great. Sakura tried to look away from him but found herself staring back at him. Emerald clashed with blue.

"Hey everyone," Ino greeted, seemingly oblivious to the silent confrontation Sakura and Naruto were having.

Everyone looked at the blonde at nodded. "Hey Ino," Tenten greeted before looking at Sakura, "Hi Sakura."

Sakura forced herself to turn her gaze away from Naruto to look at Tenten. "Hey," she replied, giving a forced smile as she did so.

The group was all too aware of the feud between the former teammates. But none of them seemed to want to bring it up, all of them knowing that it would likely not do any good. So instead, they pretended as if there wasn't any problem at all, or at least, they acted as if it was too insignificant to be mentioned.

Come to think of it, most from the group seemed convinced that the two would make up quickly and were surprised when they didn't. This wasn't the first time Ino was convinced that she and Naruto would be friends again fast. They were all convinced that the two had been good enough friends that they would eventually stop their quarrel. If only that were true.

She and Ino sat together. "So Sakura," Tenten began from across the table, "How was your time in Mist."

Sakura gave a small smile as she recalled her home. "It's really good. I mean, it's not an ideal place to live by any means. But it is nice to be there and I'm happy there."

"Konoha's probably better," Naruto muttered. Everyone paused for a moment. Sakura was confused. She knew that Naruto loved Konoha but what was the point of defending it to her? She had figured that, after everything that had happened, he would be in favour of her leaving for Mist for good. Except for the health of his newborn of course.

"That's good Sakura," the brunette replied. Tenten brightened for a moment, like she just remembered something before asking, "Also, I heard that Mist teaches their own Taijutsu style, is that true?" After the weapon's mistress said this, both Neji and Lee perked up and leaned in, although one was more subtle about it than the other.

Sakura stopped for a moment. Oh, tough question. Mist did have their own style of technique that she had got to practice after being there for two months. However, she wasn't exactly sure if she was allowed to show them it. Even if Mist and Konoha were now allies, there might be things that Mist would like to keep secret that she wasn't aware of. "Well," she explained hesitantly. She might have considered lying about it if she was even semi convincing at it. "They do have their own style, but I doubt that I would be able to show you it." Tenten looked sort of crestfallen and Sakura felt sort of guilty. It wouldn't hurt to ask would it? "I guess I can ask if I can?" Sakura suggested.

"Well at least then you wouldn't be betraying two villages," Naruto mumbled loudly enough for everyone to hear. Ok, this sounded more normal. Sakura's eyes narrowed and she fought the urge to say something in response.

"That would be great Sakura," Tenten said, tactfully ignoring Naruto's comment.

"Thanks," Sakura replied. "How was Konoha while I was gone?"

Tenten shrugged, "It was good, pretty much the same as when you left. Although," she snuck a look at Neji, "There have been a few changes."

Sakura grinned, "I'm happy for you two. Congrats." Neji and Tenten both nodded and politely thanked her in response.

"You would have known that before if you had stayed," Naruto spoke up.

Sakura felt her temper rise. That's it! She was done putting up with his side comments. "Naruto how about you say what's really on your mind?" she asked dryly.

He blinked, stood up and angrily yelled, "That's what I've been doing! Unlike you who has been pretending to like it here while you're really counting down the days to go back to Mist."

She reciprocated his action. "I wonder why," she snarled.

He actually picked up on her sarcasm this time. "Well it's not like you don't deserve it."

Her blood was now boiling. And she really wanted to yell to him about exactly why she didn't deserve his abuse. But, not in front of everyone. It was far too personal a matter. Besides, she didn't want to ruin everyone's time. At least, more than she and Naruto already had. So for now, she decided to bit back her anger and turn the other cheek.

She shut her eyes and shook her head. "Whatever." With that she turned around and walked away. "Sorry for ruining your visit everyone." She missed Ino's guilty expression.

She should never have come here. It was almost exactly how she thought it would be: awkward conversation with Naruto putting in snide remarks against her, only to eventually burst out. She was foolish for thinking that it could possibly be otherwise.

Hopefully Ino wouldn't blame herself for the ordeal. The girl was only trying to help. Forcing Sakura to come face to face with Naruto wasn't that smart, but Ino did have good intentions. And for that, Sakura was grateful.

Looking back, the only unexpected thing was Tenten asking about Mist's taijutsu style. Yes, they did have their own distinct style of the fighting technique, but Sakura didn't think that it was that well known. After all, most ninja from Mist seemed to prefer ninjutsu or other attacks of the same sort. At least from what she had seen in her time there. The pinkette wasn't sure about whether or not to show them, or even whether to ask or not. After all, she said that she could ask, not that she would.

She was pretty good with knowing policies and the such, but she wasn't sure about teaching them another village's technique. Watching another nin do it and copying it was one thing, but deliberately showing it to them was another. It almost felt as if she was showing them someone else's house while the person who actually owned the house was absent. And what if there was some rule against it? She didn't want to get in trouble; after all it makes things difficult when she returned to Mist. And she wanted that place to be as nice for her as possible.

But she supposed it wouldn't hurt to ask. After all, the worst that could happen is that they say no right? At least, she hoped that's what the worst thing that could happen was. Maybe she would send a letter in after all.

"Sakura," a deep voice cut off her train of thought. Sakura recognized the voice instantly and turned to face him. Why did it seem like Sasuk always wanted to pester her after she got over him? Yeesh.

"Yes?" she asked, her eyes narrowed slightly. What could he possibly want?

"Why did you heal me?" he asked suspiciously. He did seem genuinely confused. And his confusion was justified. Considering what had happened between the two of them and what the fallout afterwards was, he was right to not be sure why she would be willing to help him. Heck, she was wondering that for a bit herself after she helped him.

She decided to tell him the answer that she herself had to come to terms with. "Because Sasuke," she explained. "Even after what you did, you're still my team mate. And that's what team mates do, we look after each other. Also, at this point I have no idea why, but I still care about you. Not necessarily in the same way as before, but I still care. I hope that that's a good enough answer for you."


	6. Hospital visit

**Hey people. I would have had this up earlier, but my internet hasn't been set up yet. **

**This chapter finally has some positive Saku/Sasu interaction.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Sakura's eyes were narrowed as she looked down over the infant. The medic was entirely focused on her actions. Nothing else in the world mattered at that moment.

Not that there wasn't anything that wasn't worth thinking about. There had been a few major events in the past month since the failed meet up.

Almost immediately after she had returned to her home, Ino had come running and nearly pounded down her locked door to get her attention. Sakura opened the door in response to the ruckus and the blond had all but leaped on her while squealing on about how sorry she was for the get together and how she was going to make it up to her. The blonde had actually seemed more upset about the ordeal than Sakura was, which was a feat in itself.

"Ok,ok, I forgive you," Sakura assured her once she was finally able to get a word in.

Ino squealed and hugged the medic even harder than before, if that was even possible. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret it, forehead, I promise!"

"I believe you," she replied as she tried to squirm out of her friend's vice grip before she lost feeling in her arms, "Now can you please let go of me before I pass out from not being able to breathe?"

"What?" Ino suddenly realized what she was doing and released Sakura immediately. "Oh, sorry."

The pinkette laughed. "It seems you haven't changed any, you're still as stupid as ever."

Ino caught onto the insult quickly. "Hey!" She exclaimed, her blue eyes now burning with rage. "Take that back, forehead! We both know I am way smarter, and better looking, than you'll ever be!"

The two glared at each other, before bursting out laughing. Sakura was glad that things were back to the way they used to be with Ino and the two could joke around again.

"Ino," Sakura began.

"Yes, forehead?" Ino asked jokingly, as if she was expecting to get insulted again.

"I'm glad you're here," Sakura said with a smile.

Ino's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but then she smiled back, 'I'm glad too."

She had also decided to work at the hospital again, at least part time. Tsunade was shocked when she asked about it, and had asked to know why. She had informed her mentor that all she really did during the day was train and heal Naruto's baby, with the occasional hang out with a friend, so it would be nice to do something else that was time consuming. Besides, she liked healing people, and if the hospital was anything like how it was when she left it before, it could probably use her. Tsunade agreed, but warned her apprentice that she shouldn't expect to feel welcomed there.

She knew not to expect anything pleasant. And for the first week, it wasn't. Other medics went out of their way to avoid her, and patients often requested to have someone else heal them. However, as time went on, it got better. She was starting to heal more people, and a few medics were starting to open up to her. In fact, this past week there were a few patients that special requested her, saying that they wanted the best treatment possible.

It seemed like her working at the hospital was doing good outside of the building too. People were beginning to be nice to her once again. Or at least hold their tongue instead of telling her insults.

And yet another good thing had happened. Actually, it was a great thing. In his last letter, Hayden had asked her to be in a relationship with him! She obviously replied back in her next letter that she whole heartedly agreed to it. This was so awesome! She officially had a boyfriend, not that she hadn't had one before, but she had a feeling that this relationship was going to be better than her previous ones.

Of course the downside was that she was stuck in Konoha while he was in Mist. So the first part of their relationship was going to be long distance. They could still send letters to each other, but it was kind of depressing to know they it was going to be nearly a year before they do so much as hold hands or kiss.

This was why she was currently focusing so hard on Hinata's baby. Now that her reasons to return to Mist were even greater, she was determined to get this baby healthy sooner than the expected date.

It definitely wasn't going to be easy, but Sakura was more than up to the challenge. This was one situation where her will power was greater than Naruto's.

Speaking of the blue-eyed wonder, things were still bad between them. They usually went out of their way to avoid the other. Ino, despite seeing how they fought before, informed Sakura that as much as it sucked, she and Naruto should get together and talk about it. Yes, they would most likely argue, but they may just end up making up, or at least become tolerable of each other.

Sakura knew where Ino was coming from, and knew that she and Naruto should talk, or in their case yell, to each other one on one. But she really, really didn't want to do it. It was so much easier to just ignore the guy. But, she had to admit, it would be nice to be able to attend get togethers with friends without having to find out first if Naruto would be there or not.

Green chakra poured into the infant. Hayden had probably been right about one thing in his previous letters. If this baby was not the daughter of Hinata and Naruto, or another one of the main ninja families, she would have likely not been forced over here. Say it was the child of a civilian; it was likely Tsunade would have told them to go to Mist with a ninja escort, instead of for her forcing her here.

It was definitely favouritism. Then again, Tsunade likely knew that if she didn't send for Sakura, Naruto could have possibly booked it to Mist just to drag Sakura back by the hair. Not a very pleasant thought.

A trickle of sweat fell down her forehead as she finished her healing session with Lorita. She sighed and the chakra flowing out of her hands came to an abrupt halt. "Well," she announced, looking at Hinata, who was watching close by, "That's enough for one day."

"Thank you Sakura," Hinata told her, "She really is improving."

Not enough as I want, Sakura thought bitterly. She shook the thought away as she smiled at Hinata. "I guess she is."

"Even Naruto is noticing," Hinata told her before realizing her mistake. Once she did, her hand flew up to cover her mouth. "Oh! I'm s-so sorry!"

"It's ok, you didn't know," Sakura reassured her. It was interesting to know that he noticed though. "I should probably get going now though."

"See you tomorrow Sakura," Hinata said.

Sakura nodded, "See you later."

With that Sakura left Hinata's home. The place was becoming quite familiar now. Or at least, the areas of the property that she had seen were familiar. She hadn't seen most of the house. Not that she wanted to see it of course.

She glanced at her watch. Wow it was later than she thought. Usually she had a bit of a break between when she healed Lorita and when she began her shift at the hospital. But apparently she had spent that time during the healing session. And her chakra was more depleted than usual. Lovely. Hopefully she would get lucky and there wouldn't be anyone in dire need of her medical ninjutsu. At least anyone that would need it in huge quantities.

As if to tell her to get realistic, she found that the hospital was extremely busy when she walked in. Nurses and medic nins alike were running all over the place and the waiting room was flooded. Looks like she wouldn't be getting much resting time today. Ah well, time passed by more quickly when she was busy.

She strode up to the front desk and said, "Hey Omi, what's my first project?"

Before the secretary could answer, Jori, a male medical nin, walked up to them and said, "Hi Sakura, we've got a project for ya. There's a patient up in room 224 that could use your…powers of persuasion."

In other words, there was a problem patient that wouldn't respond to treatment unless it was forced on them. The second floor was the designated ninja floor, so that wasn't too much of a surprise. She knew many ninjas that seemed to think that they were invincible and didn't need to get treated for injuries.

She nodded at him, "Ok I'll go see him."

He failed miserably to hide the relief in his eyes. "Ok."

She turned and walked up to the steps that lead to her desired floor. Ninjas could get treated on other floors, but only if their floor was full or they needed long term treatment.

The medic readied herself as she walked up the steps. Whoever this was, she needed to have an iron grip on the situation. If they had scared away the other medics, chances are they wouldn't be open to her either. Well it was just too bad for them because they were going to get healed whether they wanted it or not.

Unfortunately for her, no amount of mental preparation was going to prepare her for who she was about to see. For when she got to room 224, there sitting on the bed with an annoyed expression on his face was Sasuke.

Surprise was in both of their eyes when they looked at each other. "Sasuke," she whispered.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, almost angrily.

She quickly recovered and narrowed her eyes as she walked towards him, taking note of his injuries before looking back up at his eyes. "What do you think? I'm here to heal you."

This time it was his eyes that narrowed. "I don't need it."

Without skipping a beat, she told him, "If you really believe that, you're more of an idiot than Naruto is."

His eyes narrowed even more in anger. Before he had the chance to retort, Sakura added, "Now you can either whine some more, forcing me to put you under in order for me to treat you. Or, you can shut your mouth like a good boy and I can heal you with you being still conscious. Your choice."

His jaw clenched, but he remained silent. She grinned inwardly at her victory. It was a small triumph, considering how he never seemed to like talking anyways, but it was a victory nonetheless.

She strode over to him and looked more closely at his injuries. After a quick scan she learned all that was wrong with him. He had a broken leg and a sprained wrist. Her eyes darted to his. "What happened?"

"None of your concern," was his quick reply.

"Actually, it is my concern," she told him, happy that she could actually force him to tell her what she wanted to know. "I am your healer; therefore it is my right to know what happened to my patient. It helps me understand their injuries more."

He gave her a pointed glare before grudgingly admitting, "A mission went wrong."

"A mission?" Her eyebrows flew up. He was allowed on those now? Wow Tsunade and the elders went easy on him. Either that he and Naruto requested it and they were scared of saying no to two of the most powerful ninja in the modern day world.

He didn't bother replying, and she didn't ask him any more questions. Instead she began to heal his injuries.

She was just starting on his broken leg when he spoke. "You've changed."

Sakura froze for a moment. It wasn't like Sasuke to start conversations, especially when he didn't need to. What was bringing this on? Well, whatever it was, if all she did was gape at him he'd probably drop it instantly. So she turned back to his wounds and began to heal his leg. "Yes, I suppose I have. But I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, we all change sometimes."

Sasuke was silent. They could have spent the remainder of the session in silence, but Sakura took his earlier comment as a sign of him being in a chatty mood. And as mad as she was at him from before, seeing him in a mood to have conversation was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Ok, think of a topic, think of a topic. "Was your mission with a team, or was it solo?" Great topic, she thought sarcastically to herself. There was no answer. Not wanting to give up easily, she continued, "If it was with a team, I'm assuming it was with Naruto, Sai and Kakashi. Hopefully you don't fight with Naruto like you used to," she thought happily back to the good old days of Team Seven. "You two fought constantly. I mean-"

"Sakura," He cut her off.

She immediately stopped what she was doing to glance up at her. "Yes?"

"You talk a lot."

Her fists clenched and she had to seriously hold herself back from clobbering him. Why that little…She took a deep breath and forced herself to become calm again. "And you don't talk enough," she countered as she moved onto his wrist.

"Sakura," he said, almost impatiently.

"What?" she snapped, refusing to meet his gaze. If he thought that she was going to let him deliver her insult after insult, he had another thing coming.

"I never said that it was a bad thing."

That did make her look up at him. "Oh. Umm, thanks." Did not see that one coming. She looked down at his wrist. "Alright, I think you're about fixed now." She stood up straightly. "Feel free to go when you want." With that, she left the room.


	7. New hope and shattered reality

**Hey everyone. Finally was able to update this, just in time for the start of finals *sarcastic yay* (counting the days until they're over). Anyways I hope you all enjoy this. This is my first time writing Sai, hopefully I didn't screw up his character too badly. Please leave a review at the end and tell me your thoughts :)**_  
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_You can do this; just get it over with _Sakura thought to herself as she walked towards Hinata's home for the second time that day. Ino had persuaded her once again to try and talk to Naruto. Even though every attempt to speak thus far had turned out horribly, the blonde seemed adamant that they should be friends again. Because of this, Sakura had agreed to try and talk to him again today. Maybe he wouldn't freak out as much when he's at home.

…Ok, she didn't really believe that either.

In all honesty she was expecting them to argue until he ordered her away from his house and then she would march on over to Ino and say 'I told you so'. Hopefully after that Ino would get the point that it just wasn't going to happen.

It wasn't that she was against them being close again. In all truthfulness, it would be nice to have him as a friend again. She did miss his smile sometimes. But she was becoming more and more doubtful that it would ever happen. The pinkette wasn't going to apologize for what she did, and because of that, Naruto most likely wasn't going to let her back in.

She knocked on the door of the home with a slightly shaking fist as she mentally prepared herself for what she was about to say. After all, she couldn't just say 'hey, I know you hate me right now, but Ino thinks we should be friends, and honestly I would kind of like that too, so how about it'?

Maybe she could start with 'look, can we talk please'? Or was that just going to get the door slammed in her face? What about 'we have to talk'. He'd probably reply with something like 'or what', and unless she threatened to stop healing his baby, she had nothing.

Before she could think of something else the door opened and Hinata stepped out of it. "Sakura," the girl said, surprised, "what is it? Did you have to heal Lorita again today?"

"No nothing like that," Sakura assured her as she shook her head. "I um, was actually wondering if I could actually talk to Naruto."

"Naruto?" Hinata asked before looking sad and a little nervous. "Umm, Naruto is actually on a mission with Sai and the rest of the team, aside from you. Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Sakura; I didn't mean it like that."

Sakura shook her head again as she tried to supress her feelings of hurt. "I know you didn't mean it like that. Do you…know when they'll be back?"

Hinata paused in thought for a moment. "I think in a couple hours."

"Thanks," the pinkette told her. "See you later." Then she walked away as Hinata shut the door after biding her goodbye.

Only when she was a large distance away did she allow her sadness to show on her face. Naruto and the rest of team 7 were all on a mission…without her. That probably included Sasuke too.

She stopped when she was close to a park, jumped onto a tree, and sat on one of the branches. She felt so left out, she detested it. Even when she was a genin she hated feeling like the odd one out, like she wasn't really part of a team. The girl had felt it strongly back in the Forest of Death, that she wasn't good enough for her teammates. That was one of the main reasons why she had decided to work harder afterwards.

And now she was excluded from her old team, her old family. When Sai had joined she had worried about Sasuke feeling replaced. Now she felt like she was the one excluded.

Realistically, she knew that they couldn't really include her, officially anyway, since she wasn't a 'true' Leaf nin anymore. She had accepted that when she left for Mist. But it still hurt.

She sighed when she saw a couple of kids playing underneath her. Things were so much easier when they were genin. Back before Sasuke left for Orochimaru and she was just a careless girl who's biggest problem was that her crush kept rejecting her.

How many missions have they gone on without her? Were they used to her absence now? Why did this have to happen to her?

Sakura couldn't wait to get back to Mist, where she could feel included again. Speaking of which, Hayden was starting to pester her about coming back sooner. She would love to, but it seemed like she didn't have much choice in the matter.

"Sakura?" Said girl looked down to see Sai staring up at her.

They were back already? How long had she been on the tree? She leapt down from the tree and walked over to him. "Hey. How was the mission?"

"We succeeded," he informed her. "Although Kakashi and Sasuke both got slightly injured on it."

"What? Are they alright?" She asked. The mission must have been at least a B rank then.

Sai chose not to comment on her concern. "Yes, I believe that they are both going to the hospital now."

"That's good," The medic replied.

"I think the mission would have gone smoother if you were on it though," he added. He didn't sound like it was a compliment, just an observation.

"Really?" She felt herself blush. "Thank you."

"Naruto thought the same," he told her. "Whenever we set up camp to sleep he occasionally looked over to the left of him where you always slept. And one time I heard him mumble that he wished that you were there with us."

He said that? She felt her heart leap a little. "Really? Wow, umm, thanks for telling me that."

"No problem." He gave a fake smile. "I read that if someone is kicked off or excluded from a group, they enjoy being told that they were essential to the group and that said group is worse off without them."

It took a lot of self-control not to face palm. "You…still read books to learn about human nature?" She thought that he would have moved on from that by now.

He nodded, "Yes, I find them quite informative."

Her eyebrow twitched a little. "Great."

"Well, I have to go, I have to report to the Hokage now," he waved and left.

_So Naruto missed me _she thought as she was walking towards the hospital for her volunteering shift. That lifted her spirits a little. She doubted Sai was lying, even if the purpose of him telling her was to make her feel better. Maybe her and Naruto becoming friends again wasn't such a crazy idea after all.

"Sakura," Sasuke's voice called out to her.

Wasn't he supposed to be at the hospital? "Yes?" She turned to face him.

He extended his right arm towards her. There was dried blood and a long gash on it. After she took a glance at it, she turned her focus back on his face. "And?"

"Heal it," he told her.

Her anger flared up. What was she, his maid? Did he really think that she was just going to heal every little scratch whenever he demanded it? "Excuse me?"

"Heal my arm," he said, slower this time.

Her fists clenched. _Why yes rude asshole, I'll heal it. While I'm at it, I'll roll over for you too. _"The hospital is close, go there," she told him as she made a mental note to travel to the building using a different path.

"There's no point when you're right here," he stated blatantly.

"Well has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don't want to heal your every injury?" She spat out.

His eyes narrowed slightly, as if he was annoyed with her. "You said that you cared about me."

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to be your personal medic!" This guy was seriously getting on her nerves. He was acting she was acting all unreasonable when, if the situation was flipped, he would never do the same for her. Besides, he didn't even ask her to heal him, he just demanded it like she was his servant or something.

"You also said that you were my teammate, teammates look after each other."

Oh so now he was lecturing her? He had some nerve telling her what teammates were supposed to do for each other! "Excuse me? You haven't exactly acted like a teammate either mister. Actually you haven't acted like one at all lately."

He didn't even blink. "You were the one who said that I was your teammate; I never said that you were mine."

"So what I am then? Just someone who is able to heal you whenever you need it?"

He contemplated what she asked, and then in a confused tone, said, "What else would you be?"

That did it. She stormed away from him. She just could not handle this. As soon as Lorita was stable, she was gone. If Naruto wanted his kid healed after that he'd just have to bring her to Mist.


	8. Arguements and departures

'_Here we go again'_ the pinkette thought as she walked to Naruto's door. Ino had discovered that her previous attempt to talk to Naruto didn't really get any results so of course she demanded that Sakura try again. Once again, either Ino was delusional, or thought it was okay that this would only end up with the rosette and her former team mate screaming at each other.

Either way, Sakura decided to try again, if only to quiet her best friend. Well, that really wasn't the only reason she came, but it was easier to think that it was. She knocked on the door and waited. This was the second time she was at the house that day. The first was when she had healed Hinata's baby which Naruto was unsurprisingly absent for. However, Hinata had assured her that he would be there this afternoon.

Even from outside the door, she could hear Naruto yelling to Hinata that he would get the door. She now had an extremely large urge to turn and run away. Perhaps if she fled fast enough he wouldn't see her…

Unfortunately, before she could try to leave the door opened and Naruto appeared. His eyes were bright, or at least they were until he saw who was at his doorstep. "Sakura," he spoke as he took a small step back. "What are you doing here?" His gaze turned worried. "Is Lorita ok?"

"She's fine," she quickly assured him. Or at least, the girl was as fine as she could be under the circumstances.

His expression became relieved then confused. Was she that easy to read as well? "What are you here for then?"

Here goes nothing. "I want to talk," Sakura replied, "to you."

A frown appeared on his face. He turned back to inside his home and called out, "Hinata, I'm going to go out for a few minutes." At least he was willing to do it now. That was good right? With that he shut the door and turned to face her. "Are you ready to apologise?"

She frowned. Not quite where she wanted this to go. "No."

"Well then what are you doing here?"

"Ino wanted me to try to talk you. She thinks that we should try to get along again. Obviously I think she's mistaken but I told her that I'd at least try." She figured that she might as well just explain her reasoning since there's no way that she would have come without Ino's enforcement.

"Oh so you're being honest with me? That's a change," he proclaimed.

Her features darkened. "You were unconscious."

"You could have woken me up!" He insisted. "He was out of it enough for you to have enough time to do it."

"Not really," she argued, knowing that there might have been some truth to his statement. "Besides, it was a really split second decision. Waking you up didn't really cross my mind."

"I can see that," he spat out. "Seriously, people think I'm stupid, but what you did was beyond that. Did you put any thought into it?"

"Of course I did!" Her hands were now fisted at her sides.

"So you thought about how you were betraying our village? How you were betraying our team? How you betrayed me?" Naruto yelled out.

She glared. "No, I didn't consider that. I know I should have, but I didn't. I was thinking about how he needed what I did."

"He needed it? Are you crazy? He wanted it yes, but he didn't _need_ it. What he needed was to be back with us. But you didn't think about any of that. You didn't care about me or him."

"I do!" Now her voice was on the same level of his. "Why else would I come here? Yes, Ino can be insistent, but I could have just shrugged her off if I was completely against it. I want us to be friends again, to be a team again."

He scoffed. "It's not just something I can let go! And just when I wanted to think about forgiving you, you left to Mist! You abandoned us. If it wasn't for Lorita you'd still be gone. And you don't even regret anything about it."

"You forgave Sasuke didn't you? After all he did when he came back you still took him back. I bet he doesn't regret leaving. Why am I so different?" She demanded to know.

He looked like he wanted to reply, but didn't know what to say. So she filled in the blanks for him with what she knew the reason was. "It's because you care about him way more than you do for me."

"That's not-" he started before she cut him off.

"It is. That's how it always was, wasn't it? You and Sasuke, you were the main two of our team. I was always just an afterthought, even to you. The girl you had a crush on. But it when it came down to it, your bond with Sasuke always mattered more."

"That's not true and you know it!" He bellowed out at her.

"Really? I think it is. Why else would you accept Sasuke back with open arms after all he did and still cast me aside?" Without waiting for a response, she took off. She ran with Naruto hot on her heels, hollering for her to stop.

That's it. She was leaving. Tonight.

Thankfully an Anbu had intercepted Naruto and told him that Tsunade needed to see him about a mission and that he was to leave immediately. So, with great hesitation, he departed; probably thought that he could just catch her tomorrow.

For once in a long time she wasn't sure if she wanted to go to the hospital that day. All she really wanted to do was mope around her house and pack. But if she did that, people would wonder why she wasn't there and come to her place of residence to find out why. Then they would see her pack which would definitely not be a good thing.

Therefore she went to the hospital that day. For the first time ever she watched the clock at nearly every possible moment. Others there joked that she was becoming mortal like the rest of them. She forced herself to laugh and tease them back despite her desire to walk out the doors and return to Mist right then and there.

However, being there with them did make her feel like she would miss them when she left. She had come to enjoy her time back at the Konoha hospital. The girl did have to admit that the people were more open and talkative than they were back in Mist. In Mist people who worked at the hospital generally decided that they were there to work, not socialize, and that if they wanted to converse it should be done on breaks or before and after shifts. That was not the case in Konoha where people talked and joked throughout their shifts. There were days when she liked one style of it and days where she preferred the other. The rosette hoped that she wouldn't long for talkative shifts like this one too much.

She was just on the last ten minutes of her shift when a young patient that she had been helping earlier came up to her.

"Yes, Hoshi?" She asked, looking away her from her chart as she did so. "Is everything ok?"

The little boy nodded. "I just wanted to say thank you, you know, for healing me and stuff."

Sakura smiled. "You're welcome, but you do know that it's my job to do so right?"

He nodded. "I know, but you're still so nice when you do it and you're really making me feel better. I'm really glad that you're here!"

Wow, shot to the guilty conscience. The girl struggled to keep a smile on her face. "You're welcome, glad that I can make your time here more enjoyable."

After that, Hoshi left and Sakura spent the remaining eight minutes of her shift feeling like a horrible person.

The girl was hoping to go straight home after her shift where she could stay until most people were asleep and she could sneak out. She could go the normal route and write to Mei Terumi to ask for permission to abort the mission and then tell Tsunade when she received a reply. However, it would take days for her to get a response back and she could not wait that long, especially if the answer might be a no. Plus, she didn't want to face Tsunade about this. She could see the woman's face fall already. Therefore, she chose to do the cowardly thing and sneak out.

Sakura was on the road to her house when she was intercepted by Ino. "Hey forehead," the girl greeted her. "How did it go?"

Memories of her encounter with Naruto came back to her. She sighed and looked down. "Not very well."

"Aw," Ino frowned in sympathy. "I thought it would go ok." The girl then clamped her arm around Sakura's shoulders. "Come on, let's go get ice cream and then you can tell me all about it while we stuff our faces."

Twenty minutes later they were seated in Ino's home while Sakura explained what had happened. "And then an Anbu just came and told him he had a mission, so he left," she finished.

For a little while Ino was silent. Then she looked down and said, "Oh Sakura, that's horrible." But then, she looked up again. "But at least he was willing to talk with you." She brightened. "And I think that him chasing after you shows that he might want to forgive you." Ino smiled and touched Sakura's shoulder. "He'll want to talk with you again soon and in a few weeks; you guys will be friends again!"

The pinkette couldn't help but smile at Ino's enthusiasm. "You think so?"

Ino nodded. "I'm sure of it!"

Once again Sakura was reminded of how lucky she was to have a friend like Ino. A girl that truly wanted to see her happy and that was already there for her when she needed it (and sometimes when she didn't). She was really going to miss this girl.

That thought made her sad again and her gaze drifted down towards her ice cream. Suddenly the thought of staying here longer did not sound very appealing. "Hey, I think I need to go now." She stood up.

"Huh? How come?" Ino asked.

"I have something I need to do back home," the pinkette explained as she started to move away.

"Oh um, ok. See you tomorrow," Ino replied back.

"Yep," Sakura forced herself to lie. But before she left, Sakura turned back. "Ino, thanks for everything."

"Um, you're welcome," said a very confused girl.

This time Sakura did make it back to her house without any interruptions. While there, she packed the bag she had entered Konoha with. Unfortunately that didn't take very long and she forced to find another way to occupy her time. She didn't want to leave again in case she encountered something else that made her feel guilty about leaving.

It was almost funny. When she first came back she didn't want to go out in fear of being ridiculed again. Now although there were still some that weren't fond of her, she didn't want to go out because she was scared that people would give her more reason to stay. To second guess her hasty return to Mist.

But she needed to go back. Her life was so much better in Mist. She was accepted there, needed there. She never had to worry about people saying snide remarks to her. She didn't have to worry about old team mates that didn't accept her or deal with the hurt that came from being left behind. Not to mention that she had people like Hayden waiting for her to return.

The Haruno spent the remainder of the day doing everything she could think of that allowed her to stay inside. From cleaning to looking at old letters and scrolls to doing exercises likes push ups in her hallway. And yet, it felt as if time had slowed down to a snail's pace. Every minute felt like an hour, an hour felt like a day. She was sorely tempted to leave early and had to force herself down every time the urge came.

Finally the moon rose high in the sky and the time came for her to take off. The girl nearly whooped for joy as she grabbed her bag and bounded out of the house.

Her enthusiasm left quickly after that as she gave the house one last glance. She remembered doing so before, when she had departed from Konoha the first time.

Leaving had been so much easier last time. She had so much fewer reasons for staying. Back then she didn't see any possible way for things to improve. Now there were…

Sakura tried to force thoughts like that from her head as she walked down the now deserted roads. It's not like she was completely running away from her problems. She was going to leave eventually anyway after Lorita was fully recovered. She was just…planning ahead right?

She was now near the village gates. Just a little farther now…

"Sakura," a voice stopped her. The girl looked back to see Sasuke behind her.

Shit. "Hey, Sasuke," she called out, hoping that he just passing by. "What brings you here?"

Rather than address her question, he said, "This is the way to leave the village."

That brought back memories. _She looked at him,"I knew you'd come this way if you were to leave the village. So I just waited here."_ The irony of the situation almost made her want to laugh.

Her gaze met his. Guess she was caught now. "Yes, I'm leaving. I just can't stay here any longer. So you can leave now." "_Get out of here, and go back to sleep," he told her. _

He did not seem satisfied with her response. "What about Naruto's baby?"

"It's stable enough now," Sakura explained. "It should be healed enough for another medic to look after it. If not, they can bring it to Mist."

She took a step back, he took a step forward. "You're just going to abandon everyone?"

"I'm not abandoning everyone. I'm just returning to my village, my home," she insisted.

"This is your home. And you're abandoning it," Sasuke insisted. "_Even if you get you're revenge, it won't bring happiness," she cried out. _

She frowned. "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

He gave her a dry look. "I left to seek revenge on the one who killed my family. You're leaving out of cowardice."

That stung, more than it should have. Still, she wasn't done. "You could have gotten stronger here in Konoha. It might have taken more work and a little longer, but you could have done it. But you chose to become a missing nin and completely turn your back on everyone here. I'm going to a village that is now an ally of the leaf and, as you can see, I'm still willing to do missions to help the people here. So just which one of us is a coward?"

The look on his face showed that he did not like her answer. He paused for a moment before saying, "There is no point in arguing more. You shouldn't leave."

In other words, you're right and countered my points but I don't want to admit that. Despite her desire to feel smug about it, she still needed to leave Konoha and it seemed like in order to do that she had to get away from Sasuke. Which begs the question, why did she have to get away from him. "Why do you care anyways?" She asked him. "You never cared about me before. Me leaving shouldn't make any difference to you."

She saw a troubled expression on his face; as if he had been wondering this for a while himself. "I…I'm not sure."

He didn't know? Well if she had wanted any heartfelt response from him, she surely didn't get it. "It's almost funny, how things have changed. How I used to be the one asking you to stay. I thought I was in love with you, you know? And yet, it seems like ever since I returned, all you've done is cause me pain. You were the reason why I left in the first place, yet you never showed any remorse for it. I've even went out of my way to help you, and you act as if it's my duty to do so. And now you're trying to stop from me from going to a place where I can feel accepted and happy."

Sakura looked up at him and uttered a phrase that neither person ever thought she would say. "I wish you never came back." She sighed and looked away. "But I suppose that doesn't matter now, because I'm going to Mist and you'll be here. With any luck, we won't have to see each other anymore." With that, she turned around and took off.

In a heartbeat he was there behind her with an arm wrapped around her waist to prevent her from running again. "No," he stated. "I'm not letting you leave."

She sighed and turned as much as she was able to. "Please just let me go." "_Please just stay with me," she begged him. _

"You're annoying," he informed her. _You really are annoying. _

Those words still hurt. "If I'm so annoying let me go and I won't ever annoy you again."

"No," he replied. He was close enough for her to feel his breath on her neck.

"I have to," she whispered as she wrenched herself from his grip and took off again.

Once again, he stopped her, this time by grabbing her arm. She sighed, now desperate to take off. She was so close. "If you don't let me leave, I will fight you." _Don't leave! If you do I'll scream_. She knew that the chances of her winning weren't very good, but perhaps she could give him the slip.

In a fraction of a second he was behind her. "Sakura," he spoke. "Stay." _Thank you_. Before she could react, he did the same thing he did all those years ago, and all she could see was darkness as she slipped into the unconscious.

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**Hey everyone. I am super sorry for taking so long. Winter/spring classes seriously kicked my but.  
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**In case it was hard to follow at the end, the italics are from way back when when Sasuke first left the village pre Shippuden. I have to admit that it's one of my least favourite manga chapters, but I had to revisit in order to write this scene (see what I do for you people :P ).**

**Anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please tell me what you thought of it. **


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